Events : Art/Craft Booth's Price List 2016

Note : Future team member, please read the note down below.

If you are planning on joining events or opening a booth in the near future, and you are an independent small artists/illustrators with no budget and doing this just for fun. You need to know the price range, so here I compiled the price range for this year's event that I asked around :

• Ilovebazaar , BTS Handmade Market : RM 80 per day ✓
• Market 18, Jaya One : RM 400 for 2 days ✘
• Malaysia Hobby Expo : RM 250 for 2 days ✓ * I got for free, because I sponsored huge doodle
• Public Garden Consumer Trade Show : $200 for 2 days ✓
• STGCC Singapore : $700 for 2 days ✘
• Junk-ed Makers Market : RM 60 - 70 per day ✓
• Etsy Made Local : RM 80 per day ✓
• Indonesia Comic Con : RM 1,200 for 2 days ✘
• Rantai Art Festival : RM 300 for 2 days ✓ - shared booth with my sister

The symbol : ✓ are the events that I decided to join, and the symbols ✘ are for events that I asked/emailed and were too shocked when I heard about the fees, and cancelled it. Ha. 

Personally for me, my budget is maximum RM 100 per day. Usually if the day is good, I receive around RM 250 per day, and the day is not so good, I'd probably only get less than RM 50. Rugi beso. The highest sales I ever received was around RM 600, and the lowest was RM 8. I sell mostly stickers that range from RM 1 - RM 14, so it isn't much lah. 

But why do I joined events tho? If I know the sales are sometimes bad, the crowds are sometimes close to none, the booths are super expensive or the people are just too snobbish ? Why oh why I keep on putting myself in that position that makes me regret the whole idea of being in this society? 

Love and passion. Of course, I can always opt for Etsy sells and focus on international market alone. But no, I believe in sharing what I love to do. Especially with people here in Malaysia, I still want to feel the connection instead on just ignoring the whole crowd and merajuk bawa diri and go find places where I feel belonged. I want to inspire, I want to open your eyes and let you see the future chance of doing something you like as a career. But then, kelakar lah kan if I say that my small independent business blooms and successful - no. I mean that by doing this, by having this small hobby turned into a working skill, you can go to so many places.

Huge chances, new clients, higher salary, better income :F

Other option :

• You can share the art/craft booth with your like-minded friend

• Send an email with portofolio/online shop to me : azreen_31@hotmail.com , I'm searching for future team members for international events collaboration. So under one team, we can go to places to join arts/crafts events. But I need to find people from : illustration or unique crafty product makers lah. And people who want to go faaaaaaar and love to backpack and okay with our introvertness, because we can get super awkward - you have no idea. Mihmihmih.

Team :

Run : My First Half-Marathon & All the Firsts

Happy year for my aim to keep healthy throughout the year :

• I ran over 343km, almost reaching my upgraded goal of reaching 365km this year.
• I did my first international run in Bromo, Indonesia
• I did my first trail run in Bromo as well
• I ran my first 21km - half marathon 

Trying to keep running every week is still hard. But I'm trying to at least run during the weekend. I think by far, this is year that I had so many injuries : muscle strain along the shoulder and the neck for 2 weeks, left knee injury that lasted for 2 months because of the wrong squatting technique and on-going right ankle injury that happened 2 weeks ago. Compared to all the previous years I spent on outdoor activities, this years I am not so lucky with my condition. But I survived ! :D

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How I decided on running a half-marathon when I already told myself that I won't do it?

I became so used to running 10km in my weekly training that I feel like I want to try 21km. The thing about running 10km in the weekend, after awhile, my body got used to the same pace and boring paths that I try to explore in so many different ways. I usually spend around 1 hour 20 minutes in each weekly training while Af went on doing his parkour training. So it gets a bit lonely sometimes. In each session : 5 times around the pond, 5 times up the training hill, 5 times down the training hill, 5 x 2 times zig-zag alongside of the stairs, and finishing around the pond. It became a boring repetition.

So I decided to try something new. I wanted to feel the exhaustion and the thrill and disappointment and sweats and muscle pain that I used to feel. I registered for the half-marathon at Putrajaya Night Marathon, and asked my brother to join as well.

The training :
I started one and a half month before the event. I managed to run around 100km in the past 3 months before my 21 KM half marathon. It was just a normal training mostly on weekends because I get so busy in the weekdays there's no time to go for a run. That's all, nothing special. Just weekly run. 2 weeks before the run I stopped my running because I had several injuries and muscles pain that won't go away : alongside the neck and shoulder, and my right ankle. I wanted to give my body a full rest and faster recovery lah konon. 

I tried Salon Pas patches, I tried putting cold packs, I tried daily simple stretches, nothing seemed to work. Like all my injuries, I had to let time heals and rest.

Preparation :
I bought 2 sachets of fruity energy gel - one for me and one for my brother *for RM 7. For whatever it was, the energy gel should give you some some energy for your run. It actually works just like eating a banana - but I thought that the organizer will then pass us some bananas, might as well keep something for plan B when my energy drains out.

Here is the map :

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Weather :
It started with a light rain, everything got soaky before we even started running.
So the wet feeling in our shoe all through the running was real =.=
But the night weather was great, I wanted to try my first long endurance run at night compared to in the hot daylight because I hated the sun and I don't want any sun-burn :D

Here is an image before we started running, all soaky and wet because of the rain + a photobomber behind us *hello! :

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The run :
I divided my run into 3 parts :

Hour 1 : I survived on water and 100 plus, I sipped water at every stations because I don't know how I'm going to pull thing off and how long I might take. My rough estimation was around 3 hours+ for my first 21km. The first hour was okay, I did this many times.

Hour 2 : KM 14
I ate the energy gel every 15 minutes, after 2 hours of running. 1 sipped at a time, so it lasted for an hour. The second hour was also okay, because my pace is slow constant pace I don't think I had anything much in mind. I managed to keep on my jogging pace all through 2 hours+ of running. I parted with my brother in KM 13 when he started having muscle cramps every few minutes.

Hour 3 : KM 19
I kept the banana from the organizer until my third hour, and later I ate it every 15 minutes. The banana lasted for 1 more hour. After the third hour, I had nothing else but water stations. The pain started after KM 16, that's when my body seemed to shout and scream to stop. All joints on my legs were in pain and I started asking why did I registered for this in the first place ? I forgot what happened in KM 17 - 21, because all I remembered was I keep telling my body to keep on my jogging pace. Ish ish, why laa kan.

Then I reached the finishing line after 3 hours : 31 minutes, it was a bit surreal. I was groggy, I saw my brother whom reached the line 11 minutes before me : I wonder when did he passed me? But everything afterwards was all moody and pukey and I-just-want-to-sit-and-not-talk state. All pictures taken afterwards was not voluntarily taken and I can't even smile.

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Result :

Number : 573/770

Official Time : 3 hours 31 minutes 

*Just 11 minutes away from my brother

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Things I learned from my first 21 km :

• Training and practices are important. 
• Carbo-load should start 5 days before the run
• After some time, music isn't something I want to listen to. Just-complete-silence and the sound of footsteps.
• Yes, it was painful after it reached certain distance. But it isn't too bad afterwards.
• Man, I still love running.

After math :

On that Sunday after the night of running 21km - I opened a booth at Etsy Made Local for the whole day. Right after Sunday, I went to work like usual. On Monday at work I walked funny, all muscles in my body were in pain. But it took around 3 days to recover. By that next weekend, I went on my weekly training back again.

Am I going to do this again? 

Are you kidding? For all the sweats and pain and ridiculous state of mind ? 

Or course I'm going to do this again :D

Mini Escapism : Rimba & Rusa

A little splurge on fancy food and place. 

We went to Rimba & Rusa after we wrapped things up at Etsy Made Local, because the sales was good I wanted to treat AF with a nice dinner. He helped me so much these past 2 weekends.

I knew about the place because of Wondermilk & Hello Dear. As a designer, I am a big fan of their designing team : be it from the marketing point of view, or interior design or branding itself. Every single things from them are inspiring and worth Pinned ! You can stalk them IG or even facebook account, worth every likes. They are really good in designing :

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Location :

The place is located just 11 minutes from Battery Acid Club, it was really close by, if not because of the traffic. We used Waze to go there, here is the map :

From their IG :

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The food :

I ordered Ciao Carbonara (RM27) & Af ordered Pulled Beef Mac & Cheese (RM22), we shared a pressed juice of Pink Power (RM14) and mineral water (RM2.50), it totalled around RM 70 after GST. Expensive? Of course it was, I would be lying if I say it was all affordable - because I cook fresh foods everyday, I can say this totalled up to 10 days of home-made cooking for two. But I wanted to spend it on the place, because of my appreciation towards the obvious hard-work they did on the restaurant and because we worked hard these past 2 weeks :D 

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The interior

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Things I took home :

Along all the inspiring photos of the place and the designs, I took the paper coaster before the drips of water fell on it and also the golden sticker of Rimba & Rusa on the bottled water we ordered. All added in my journal.

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Events : Etsy Made Local & Battery Acid Club

Etsy Made Local : 

This event was also a random tryouts for me. I applied and I got a place to open a booth on the Sunday from the 2 days event. I was really excited because I really like Etsy, and I was hoping that the Etsy community will be supportive and like-minded.

I was right! The crowd was the best, this is one of my favorite event so far. 

I sold so many sticker packs and postcards, some greeting cards and bags. People didn’t stop coming, even though by 3pm the weather changed from a hot sweaty afternoon to a heavy thunderstorm. But the thing was, even though it rained heavily people still keep on coming and buying things :D

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The organizer & location :

I also like the big orange banner and the Etsy's free stickers and the posters and the little cafe : Battery Acid Club that uses a lot of my own Pinterest-inspired stuffs that I pinned! Especially the part with small-sized tiles for the kitchen top and their beautiful white and black toilet. A very well-designed place. So inspiring *taken from the IG :

The map :

I took 3 of Etsy stickers from the organizer, because I really want to stick them in my journal - even though they said one person can only take one, ha ! I also received my Etsy namecard and a sticker saying "Ask me About my Etsy Shop". Isn't this amazing? All customized items for all vendors - never had this much fun and appreciation at any events.

Love the detailing. Love the chatty friendly organizers.

Things I put in my journal :

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The vendors :

I bought some stuffs from other illustrator called "Sukka Project". I really like her own unique stroke so I bought a hand-made small pouch bag - I kinda want the postcard as well, but it was hand-made and was quite pricy for me :( All the items were silk-screened onto fabric and paper, some of the items were paper-marched into a unique characters. They told me that they are joining Rantai 2016 as well, and I asked them to produce more art prints. Ha :D

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I also met Diawangan for the first time. She is one of my client - I designed her company's logo. I personally quite like the cute logo of the cloud and smiley face. Kak Zila brought her son and husband along. I greeted her and stopped by at her booth, but I didn't buy any items from her : she sells handmade nursery items :)

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Near to my booth was Eleanor,'s workshop, a designer and a calligraphy artist. There were a bunch of people learning calligraphy all through the day, I wanted to greet and talk to her but she seemed a bit busy teaching. This is her takes on the event day.

Other vendors :

I think I should try to make friendly greets to everyone after this, ask around, get to know people, perhaps interview some of the vendors to write about them. For that, I need a lot of caffeine in the morning and a mental set that the day will be extra exhausting but worth it. I should also prepare for a set of questions. Hm.

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Outcome :

Sales : RM 623
- Booth rent : RM 80
- Lunches & Dinner : RM 100 (Dinner at Rimba&Rusa, coffee at Battery Acid Club, KFC for fast lunch)
- Gas & Tolls : RM 40+

The best sales so far in the past almost 30 booths at various events.

Events : Junk-ed Maker's Market, Wisma Central

The last 2 weekend were spent at different events : 1. Junked Makers’ Market in Wisma Central, Jalan Ampang near KLCC and another one 2. Etsy Made Local, at Battery Acid Club in PJ. Both were a one-day event.

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The day started early in the morning on Saturday - we both drove to KL almost late because the event was supposed to start at 10am and we went out quite late to buy the tiles to make the kitchen top at my apartment. So we used GPS and took MEX highway to avoid the unwanted traffic, I did a double check on the flat-rate parking fees at Avenue K : RM 5 for the whole day which seemed the most affordable and nearest one considering we were staying for the whole day. The items were all packed in 3 big bags that were easy to bring for a short walk across the road.

Little lights all over the event :

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Junked Makers’ Market :

The event was located at Level 2, Wisma Central - the place that we sometimes go to print stuffs in the city. When I arrived at the place, the organizer greeted me. She recognized me immediately - she then ushered me to my booth. A nice booth located by the end of the corridor, next to the bigger space where people give talks and created art installation. There were little LED lights along the corridor : on the floor and on the ceiling, the place was a bit dark and not so good for business as people can't see clearly all the items on the desk - I wish I brought a desk lamp, but it was cozy and comfortable, macam tempat lepak2. Especially when they played a nice playlist of : the XX, Mew, Artic Monkey, etc all through the event. 

Note : This was also why I didn't take any photos for the event, the lighting was quite bad :F 

Here I took snapshots from Af's videos :

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The vendors :

The event was a really small event with not more than 15 vendors, in conjunction with a cafe’s launching and several talks of the day about 3D printing and laser cutting. I met one of the artist that I really like the intenet : Syarifah Nadhirah. She does a really nice soft-coloured watercolour painting that I’ve come to like from her society6 account. So I bought two of her printed postcards : one of it was a picture of lime and lemon collection, and another one was a drawing of artichokes. I already put inside my journal. Oh, I also asked for her signature. I make that a habit - every time I buy postcard or art prints from artists or designers, I make sure I ask for their signature. As a token of a short awkward meetups. I will try better next time !

The organizers :
They also have a really nice friendly organizers. I felt a bit old, seeing this kids managing stuffs and all. But I also felt their strong vibes that I used to feel when I started my early years at events and booths. So it was a nice reminder :)

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The video highlight :

Like always, video highlight was made by AF, 

please contact him for any projects regarding videos :

JunkED Makers' Market 2016 from Farikarim on Vimeo.

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Outcome :

Sales : RM 200
- Booth rent : RM 60
- Parking : RM 5
- Foods of the day : RM 70
- Car : RM 30

My sales was not so great, just enough to pay the rent, eat lunches and dinner at IKEA and some extra more. The event was not too hectic and busy, people were friendly and supportive, just not so many crowds as I wish it would. 

Here is the poster I made for the event :

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Here's a map of Prototype Gallery :

Little House : Kitchen Makeover 02

The pipe problem :

The pipe was broken because the wooden cabinet was broken and the sink was sinking, so everything fell apart from the kitchen sink top to the pipe in the nearest toilet :( Ma called her friend to get it fixed. It took several frustrating days because the plumber got family problems but finally he got it fixed, and he installed an ugly looking plastic pipe in the toilet with sloppy concrete plastered to the wall and also fixed the broken pipe in the kitchen wall, installed a new pipe and plastered another sloppy stuffs on it. Very ugly, but it is now fixed.

Cost : RM 300 for plumbing, and new pipes

This it how it looked a couple of weeks ago *sad and miserable condition, this is how wooden cabinet will look like after 10 years - repuuut :

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The quotation for kitchen top + cabinet :

And so after 3 quotations from various people :

• one guy from ma (too expensive and too slow) - RM 6.8k for front and back kitchen top + concrete counter with cabinets.
• one guy from Aja (still far too expensive) - RM 3.8k for front and back kitchen counter, RM 3.2k for just the front kitchen cabinet with concrete kitchen top.
• one other guy from me - the one that I found from Mudah, mine is the most affordable one. I told him I am really on a budget - RM 1.7k for the concrete kitchen top without tiles. And additional RM 900 for the cabinet, if I want. I wanted to find my own tiles to reduce the cost, because they said additional RM 200 for the tiles. The job was down in less than 2 weeks.
• This is before all the old cabinets were removed :

Cost : RM 1700 for sink plumbing, concrete kitchen top and installing tiles, plus garbage disposal renting for 1 day.

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Gas Cooktop for the Kitchen Counter :

Over 2 months before, we searched at several places for a small 2-place gas cooktop for the new I-shaped kitchen counter in the main kitchen. I was inspired by Tokyo's home with small kitchen space.

The gas cooktop is really small compared to what we had before, we found it at SenQ from Electrolux brand and bought it really early because I need to buy part-by-part for the whole kitchen renovation. People on budget had to work on what they have, kan? 

Cost for the built-in gas cooktop from Electrolux : RM 932 with addition 3 years in-house warranty.

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The tiles for the Kitchen Counter :

• Saturday : Tiles searching day. Eyed for one of the shop in front of Pasar Borong. 

The original plan was to use small tiles for the kitchen counter but they said that small tiles are too fragile for everyday use, they suggested to use the thicker and bigger ones for it. So I decided to follow their suggestion and maybe use the small tiles for the walls instead. We went to 3 shops in Seri Kembangan area, and 3 more closed ones because it was a public holiday. 

I bought 10 big tiles : each tiles costed RM 8.50 on promotion, the real price was RM 19.90 each. They had a huge beige-whitish grade A tiles with some texture on it, I didn't want the white shiny polished ones like they suggested so the texture was fine. The tiles were used for the kitchen top and the extended on the floor part for the future cabinet. 

Cost for tiles : RM 85 (RM 8.50 x 10)

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The timeline for Kitchen Counter Process :

• Monday : Af and I took a day off. They came, dissembled the old kitchen cabinets and prepared the things needed.
• Tuesday : They came again, ma had to stay at home. They measured the place, prepared the framework and filled in the concrete. This took the whole day
• Wednesday - Friday : No one at home, so they left the concrete dried properly
• Saturday - Af & I were at an event opening a booth. We went to the tiles shop to buy 6 more tiles that morning. Both my younger brother and sister had to stay at home, to wait for them to clean up the concrete top, install the tiles, the kitchen place and the sink with the whole plumbing.
• Sunday - My siblings cleaned the kitchen.

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Next : Cabinet for the kitchen top in dry kitchen, and floor tiles in the wet kitchen :F

Moneeeeh.

Little House : Kitchen Makeover 01

I'll be frank, I'm not full-heartedly committed with this project.

The reasons :

1. Because I am still renting other place with AF and having to be in charge of 2 places at once isn't financially smart.
2. It's still my house, Ma mentioned it several times. I had to be financially in-charge of the full renovation because it's the "owner's" responsibility, aside from my whole family is living there instead of me.
3. The kitchen cabinet collapsed too soon, too sudden, the sink was broken, the whole kitchen was flooded. They had the problem for 2 months - like that. And everyone was not really full-heartedly committed as well.
4. I had to do something, fast, money-efficient, and solve this stupid problem that stalled for far too long.
5. I hated my siblings for turning their eyes blind for this. For letting this problem consumed 2 months of their lives like nothing happened and passed it to Ma, and living there like a renting house.

So I finally decided to kick them out, I'll be in charge and move back again this December instead. I asked my brother and sister to find their own renting place because I don't want them there. It was the hardest thing to do, but I had too, they are far too old for me or ma to take care of them. I'm fully aware about sharing this matter in my blog *it is against my rules nowadays, especially the ranting part, but I don't want to cry myself to sleep just because of these things that I told them so many times but they kept silent, just ignored my messages and let me think and think and think and rant to AF for over a year now. No, make it almost 2 years since we got married. They have no idea how stressed out I got over this. So kicking them out with a heart-stone decision is my final option and I'm sticking up to it.

Ma is disappointed with me, she felt like I'm kicking her out too.

I told her that I just want my siblings to find their own place and be responsible for their lives instead. Plus to stop using so many excuses to grow up and be independent like I did. 

So, that's the part of how this problem started and how it came to kitchen renovation project solely decided and planned on me alone, with a help from Af of course.

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The pre-plan :

So the previous 10 years kitchen plan was the L-shaped kitchen cabinet with 4-place gas cooktop installed, 2-parts sink and the whole electrical items on it. I hated the mess, because the kitchen is small and my family of 6 is all big and all the hoarded stuffs were taking too much space. It is too crammed with collected and unused stuffs.

I wanted the future kitchen to be used comfortably because I'm going to use the space everyday. So I planned on making the main kitchen a dry kitchen with a bigger dining place and the store behind that used to be my brother's room to be turned into a wet kitchen and where I'll store all cooking items and probably a washing machine. They didn't really agree on not having all the cabinets to keep things, but I wanted what I visioned and I try to not care about what people said. Plus it's my money and my apartment, I want to like the things that I spend on =.=

I prepared a mood-board. I want a white kitchen, a good space with airy ventilation, natural lights and where I can eat+lepak2 with my my whole family. I have a huge collection of pinned items in my Pinterest here - because I've been planning for far too long, so I can even imagine it vividly.

A small apartment is something I wanted so much other than travelling, but none of the things that happened since I bought it helped much. I moved-out twice since I bought it, so I supposed you can guess how much I wanted my own space instead of sharing it with my whole siblings. Now I don't believe their promises, it's over 5 years and they are still there saying that they will find a place. Nope, that won't do. 3 weeks to go.

Note : I bought one, I can't let myself buy another property in this economy. 

I have too many debts to settle and too many places to go. 

So this is my little place, I own it, and I want to love it.

Work Related : Vectober

Other than updated Behance posts and its portfolio, I also post daily on my Dribbble account. Most things are vectorized items that I did when I worked with Freepik throughout this year - there are hundreds of little items, but I did an alternate version for the ones that I posted on my Dribbble account daily. It's a cute-eyed mini version.

It started with the #inktober that everyone in IG mentioned about, but I no longer have time to draw on paper, so I changed it to #vectober - apparently my current main medium is all in digital :F So I kept on posting it daily, sometimes 2-3 per day because I always missed posting stuffs over the weekend. 2 weeks later, it became like a dedication - a thing that I need to do at least for just a few minutes daily. 

I'm so proud of the outcome.
I posted around 25 shots in Dribbble for the month of October :